Student fees skyrocket

Next year, mandatory student fees will likely increase by about four times as much as they did last year as the university struggles to maintain student services amid statewide budget cuts and an in-state tuition freeze.

Annual mandatory fees — those that every student has to pay — would increase by about $200 next year, pending the approval of university President Dan Mote. At a committee meeting Thursday night to consider the fees, several contentious votes were split along student-faculty lines. Some said Student Government Association President Steve Glickman could have been tipped the balance, but he left the meeting early.

Much of the fee increases would come in the form of three new fees to fund projects traditionally paid for by tuition: the library, the Health Center and classroom improvements, SGA Vice President of Finance Andrew Steinberg said.

“[The new fees are] expensive, but even more than that, these don’t belong in our fee dollars,” Steinberg said. “These are expenses that should be raised through tuition. But the problem is there’s been a tuition freeze over the last three years.”

The 13-person committee — comprised of four undergraduate students, two graduate students and seven faculty members and administrators — considered more than 10 mandatory student fees, some new and some old. One of the most contentious fees was a new $30 fee to pay for classroom improvements including new tables and chairs, paint and ceiling tiles, SGA Senior Vice President Elliott Morris said.

Before the committee considered the fee, Glickman left the meeting to catch a flight home for Rosh Hashanah. All five students present voted against the fee, leaving the vote tied with one abstention, Morris said, adding that Vice President for Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie broke the tie in favor of the fee but said she would make it clear students opposed the fee.

“Students didn’t feel this was the year for it,” Morris said. “I stood and said: ‘I’m happy with the classrooms the way they are, until there’s a physical danger for them. It’s not the year to pay a $30 fee so that students are more comfortable.’”

Glickman said he was told the meeting would continue on a different day if it ran past its scheduled 7:30 p.m. end time, but added he would have voted against all of the new fees had he been present. Instead, the meeting continued until around 9 p.m.

Still, Glickman insisted his presence probably wouldn’t have swayed the vote.

“That faculty abstained because it was a close vote,” Glickman said. “Based on what Elliott [Morris] has told me, if I was there, that faculty wouldn’t have abstained.”

Graduate Student Government President Anu Kothar said she had not heard the meeting would continue another day, but that once Glickman left, the rest of the meeting probably should have been postponed.

While Glickman was absent, the committee also approved a new $100 fee — the largest single increase  — to fund the library’s journal subscriptions and other materials and to build a new study area in McKeldin Library. Students present at the meeting had differing accounts of whether this vote was also tied.

Steinberg said he opposed the fee because it was vaguely worded and the money should come from tuition dollars. Aaron Tobiason, GSG vice president for academic affairs, said he shared their concerns but supported the fee because of the dire state of the university’s libraries, and the fee passed.

“I’ve seen firsthand how far behind we are with the libraries,” Tobiason said. “I didn’t think it was unreasonable. I realize that it was a fairly significant jump, but I, at least from my perspective, was willing to pay that.”

The committee also considered a $70 University Health Center fee to free $2 million to be spent on other initiatives. The fee was cut in half before passing.

Kothari said she worried the approved Health Center fee might be the beginning of a trend.

“Now state money is being taken away from the Health Center for something else, and the fee is being instituted to support the Health Center,” Kothari said. “Eventually maybe we’ll see a complete lack of state funds for things like the Health Center or the libraries.”

Maintaining an in-state tuition freeze can keep education affordable, but also pushes university resources to their limits.

Glickman, who said he supports holding tuition steady for another year, said the freeze will have to be reevaluated in the future.

“The tuition freeze in its current state is not sustainable,” Glickman said. “While I believe it’s necessary, it’s not sustainable.”

The SGA is drafting a letter calling for students and administrators to work together to search for a “sustainable” funding source, Glickman said, but he said he could not be more specific about possible sources.

“[The tuition freeze] is something that it is incredibly important, but during this economic time we do need to evaluate whether or not it would be feasible and whether or not it would be appropriate,” Steinberg said.

cox@umdbk.com